Process of manufacturing gas



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H. M; YOUNG. PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING GAS.

No.- 507,252. Patented 001;. 24, 1893.

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WITNESSES? I J w. 61. u v INVENTOH 4% w i Y-WM NITED STATES PATENTOFFICE.

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING GAS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 507,252, dated October24, 1893.

Application filed February 3, 1893. Serial No. 461,699. (No specimens.)I

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that LHAYDEN M. YOUNG, a resident of Chicago, in the countyof Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Processes of Manufacturing Gas; and I do hereby declarethe following to be a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which itpertains to make and use the same.

The object of myinvention is to adapt the so called producer gas such ascommonly used in iron mills, glass factories and thelike to domesticuses by lessening its volume, concentrating its heat value and fixingits hydrocarbons; and the invention consists in the 1mprovementhereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

It is proposed to accomplish my result by the method or process nowhereinafter described. Apparatus for this purpose may be varledconsiderably according to varying requlrements of situation, capacity,850., and also with reference to varying preferences of construction orconnection as hereinafter pointed out; but the accompanying drawingshows an apparatus generally suitable for the purpose and may be used todescribe the process.

The drawing shows a vertical section of the combined apparatus, theseveral chambers and connecting fiues being cylindrical.

A is a generating chamber, or simply a Wellman producer, having gratebars, 1, ash pit, 2, double doors, 5, 6, air inlets, 3, steam inlets, 4,feeding port, 7, poke holes, 8 and 9, and a flue, 10, leading into thefixing chamber, B. Said fixing chamber B has near the top an air port,11, and lower down a mass of loosely arranged fire brick or otherrefractory material 12, supported upon an arch, 13, andhaving beneathsaid arch a flue, 14, connecting with a second fixing chamber, 0, thesaid chamber 0 having at its base an air port,

V 15, and over the same an arch, 16, supporting another mass of looselyarranged fire brick or other refractory material, 17, and having abovethe said mass an outlet, 18, leading into a bifurcated pipe, 19, oneprong of which pipe leads upward to the escape vent, 20 (which latterhas a cap or valve, D) and the other prong of which pipe leadsdownwardly into the water seal, S.

To operate according to the invention, I proceed by distinct steps.

Step one: The valves to the air ports, 3, 11, 15, and the steam port, 4,being closed, and the cap valve, D, being open, I start a fire on thegrate bars, 1, in the furnace, A, using kindling wood and coal andallowing the feeding port, 7, to remain open so as to assist the naturaldraft. When the fuel has become well ignited, I close the doors, 5, 6,and also the feeding port, 7, then turn on the air blast, at the port,3, and let the products of combustion escape through the outlet vent,20. As the fire advances, I charge additional coal, from time to time,through the feeding port, 7, until finally I get a bed of bright redcoals, three to four feet thick, above the grate bars. This can bedetermined by looking into the furnace through the poke holes, 8, 9.Step two.-When the fuel bed attains this condition the products escapingtherefrom have become combustible. I now open the valves to the airports, 11 and 15, and to the steam port, 4. The gases ignite in each ofthe chambers B and C, and the heat of the combustion of the gases isgraduallyimparted to the masses of refractory material, 12 and '17. Allthe products of combustion are meanwhile escaping as before through theoutlet vent, 20. I continue this operation until the refractory materialin the chambers B and 0 become heated up to a yellow or approximatelywhite temperature. Step three.-I then shut off the air blasts at 11 and15, close the cap valve D, and immediately drop through the feedingport, 7, a full charge of fresh bituminous coal, preferably Well-brokenup, into the furnace chamber A. The heavy smoke immediately arising, andmade up of soot and tarry vapors, is carried by the current of gasesthrough the flue, 10, and down through the mass of refractory materialin chamber 13, thence through the flue, 14, up through the mass ofrefractory material in chamber C, thence out through 18 and down through19 to the water seal, S. In the meantime it has ceased to be smoke. Thefloating particles of soot and the carbon released from the tarry vapor,have been left in the hot masses of refractory ma- IOO terial, while theresidual hydrogen and gasified hydro-carbon have taken a place among thefixed gases of the output. But the now red-hot carbon, or soot, lodgedin the masses of the refractory material is not suffered to remainthere. Some of the air from the air port, 3, and some of the steam fromthe steam port, 4, have passed up through the fuel bed in furnace A, ina free state, and also not a little carbonic acid gas has escaped fromthe said fuel bed without being converted into carbonic oxide. Theseotherwise deleterious ingredients in the producer gas become quiteuseful in the fixing chambers, B and 0. While the smoke was stillpassing through the apparatus, these three agents (free air, free steam,and carbonic acid gas) were at work appropriating the free carbon orsoot deposited as aforesaid in the refractory material, almost as fastas it was lodged; and now after all the smoke from the charge of coalhas passed out and the current of gases has become clear again, it is amatter of but a short interval until the refractory material is quitedivested of this sooty coatin g. In some cases however it may bedesirable to reheat the refractory material before the carbon isentirely gasified and the invention is consistent witheither an entireor partial removal, at any particular stage, of such deposit of carbon.Step four.This process of first driving the surplus carbon out of thehydro-carbon vapor and then converting the freed carboninto carbonicoxide by the agencies named, has required as ithas absorbed,a great dealof the heat stored in the refractory material, and instead of therefractory material being now at a yellowheat, its temperature is downto perhaps a cherry red. I must restore the yellow'temperature in therefractory mate rial before another charge of coal is made into thefurnace A. So I open the cap valve D, turn on the air blast at 11 and15, and heat up the fixing material again (as in step two) preparatoryto a new charge of coal in furnace A, When this is done I repeat stepthree. Thus the alternations go on indefinitely.

The amount of coal fed in a single charge and the length of intervalbetween the charges will depend of course upon the rate at which I amoperating, since I can operate either slow or fast, by regulating thevarious air blasts, 3, 11, and 15, and the steam blast, 4, accordingly.

It is not essential to introduce a full charge of coal at once as abovedescribed and the invention will not be departed from by chargingthecoal more or less gradually and in successive portions or in two or moresmall successive charges with short intervals varying according to thecondition in respect to heat of the refractory material, the nature ofthe coal, the rapidity of operation and other circumstances. My generalgage is the condition of the fuel bed in chamber A. This fuel bed shouldbe kept in depth or thickness about three feet or more; and then itshould be kept in a state of ignition throughout, the color of the heatnot being allowed to fall below a bright red or cherry, as seen fromabove. These conditions can at all times be ascer tained and taken careof by poking andinspecting through the poke holes, 8 and 9. I preferablyintroduce as much steam and as little air as consistent with theseconditions of the fuel bed. Slight variations howeverin the air or steamsupply or brief and occasional variations of more considerable extentwhether accidental or designed will not substantially change the processherein described and claimed. It is however, important that combustionwith a comparatively low temperature be maintained in the fuel bed bypractically continuous blasts of air and steamand that after bituminouscoal :has been charged and its more volatile constituents or aconsiderable part of them have been usedlto enrich the gas productssubstantially as set forth, the residual coal thus deprived of aconsideral part of its hydrocarbon, shall be used to make gas by thecontinuance of the air and steam supply and said gas beburned to heatrefractory material preparatory tothe subsequent charging of freshcoal,the outlet valve, as D, being open at such time todischarge theproducts of complete combustion elsewhere than into the holderof theenriched gas made as stated.

Should it be desirable for any purpose as for illumination, forinstance, to specially enrich the gas with a larger hydro-carbonelement, this can .be .done byburning somewhat more of the gases than isrequired when coal only is used in the manufacture,,andintroducing .intothe top of the chamber 13, any liquid hydro-carbon, such as petroleumor. an y of its distillates. It isnot pretendedhowever, that such a gaswouldequal in light giving qualities the illuminating gas made by thelately improved methods of water gas manufacture. It isclaimed however,that it would at least equal natural gas, which is used for that purposein many small towns. I have said that apparatus for this purpose may beconsiderably varied. In the first place, the chamber A maybe constructedin any form used in producer gas or water gas manufacture, forgenerating purposes. In the next place, two or more of these producersorgenerators may be connected with the same fixing chamber or chambers,and be operated altogether or not altogether,according as desired by theuse of valves in the respective fiues corresponding to the flue 10.Again, I may have one mass of refractory material or two such masses,and whether one or two, I I

may arrange it or them, in any way usual or known in such cases.

Heretofore in an operation involving the alternate blowing up of thefuel bed it has been proposed to admit air and steam sparingly to theincandescent fuel for the purpose of sustaining the heat and prolongingIIO the operation as set forth in Patent N 0. 325,7 66 granted September8 1885, to Potter and Boeklen. In such process however the fuel bed isnot supplied continuously with air and steam in constant quantity as airalone is supplied during the blowing up operation. It is also incidentto this prior method that a part of the coal is removed from the fuelbed and that a fixing retort is externally heated by a separate fire. Ithas also been proposed to blast bituminous coal cont-inously with airand steam and utilize the entire product for mixing with coal or oil gasfrom retorts. It has also been proposed to continuously blast a depth often feet or more of fuel with air and steam to produce withgas and taran exceptional quantity of ammonia.

I am aware that it has been proposed to blast a bed of bituminous coalwith air and steam in an approximately continuous manner to make anilluminating gas, the coke produced by the blasts and which wouldotherwise impoverish the gaseous products being transferred td asecondary combustion chamber to be there burned for heating a fixingretort, and also that it has been proposed to divide the gaseous currentcontinuously produced by blasting bituminous coal with air and steam andto conduct the richest portion thereof through a retort andsimultaneously burn another portion under the retort to heat the same. Iam also aware that bituminous coal has been blasted continuously withair and a small quantity of steam to generate a temperature sufficientlyhigh to continuously heat a body of refractory material, steam beingadmitted in considerable quantity above the fuel bed; and these methodsI do not claim. I neither transfer any part of the fuel charge toexternally heat a retort as in the formercases nor maintain a high heatin the fuel bed as required in the last case. My improvement involvesthe introduction of substantially as much steam to the fuel bed asconsistent with constant combustion which use of steam results in acomparatively low temperature-in the burning fuel at all times and onetoolow to heat the fixing chamber. To effect this latter object I burnthe gaseous products of the continuous blasts at times between coalcharges when they are poorest in quality after the smoke and volatilehydro-c'arbons of the fresh charges have been passed through therefractory material and fixed. I thereby avoid the necessity either of asupplementary fuel bed or of a highly heated primary bed and am able tokeep thelatter at a low temperature and to generatea higher heat at thepoint where it is needed for fixing purposes by combustion of the gas atthe time when the said gas is poorest in quality. My process thereforediffers from the ordinary producer-gas method mainly in that thevolatile hydrocarbons of bituminous coal are used exclusively to enricha part of the producer gas and the heat value of another part of thesame is used to fix said enriched portion, thereby diminishing the totalvolume of the producer gas and makinga gas that is proportionatelyincreased in value as its volumeis reduced.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim is r 1. Theimprovement in the art of making gas which consists in continuouslyblasting an ignited mass of bituminous coal with air and steam, to forma producer gas, the'air being supplied in practically the smallest andthe steam inpractically the largest quantity consistent with constantcombustion; charging fresh coal with intermissions; burning the gasimmediately before a charge is made to heat refractory material; andpassing the gases immediately after a charge is made through the saidrefractory material, to form a fixed gas of enriched quality;substantially as set forth.

2. The improvement in the art of making gas from bituminous coal whichconsists in continuously blasting an ignited mass of the coal with airand steam to form aproducer gas, the air being supplied'in practicallythe smallest and the steam in practically the largest quantityconsistent with constant combustion; continuously passing the gasthrough refractory material; intermittently burning I the gas to heatthe refractory material; intermittently charging fresh coal to replenishthe fuel bed, the charge of coal being made immediately after Therefractory material is heated, and the refractory material being heatedafter the condensible hydrocarbons distilled from the charge have passedthrough the said refractory material and after theresultant deposit ofcarbon upon said refractory material has been wholly or partiallygasified, substantially as set forth.

HAYDEN M. YOUNG.

